Faced with quarantine and isolation for swaths of 2020, Colorado artists did what they do best — create.
The creations of seven artists, specifically focused on their experiences through the difficult year of 2020, will be the focus of a new Galleries of Contemporary Art (GOCA) gallery titled U Ok?
The gallery will be on view and available to the public at the GOCA Downtown location at 121 S. Tejon Street, and will kick off with a public event on Friday, June 4 from 5 to 8 p.m. Both the event, and the gallery’s public viewing, are free of charge.
Organizers include two UCCS alumnae, including Stephanie Von Fange ’14, GOCA’s exhibition and events manager, and Christine Flores ’20, who works as community coordinator for the Concrete Couch organization. Both graduated from the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences Visual and Performing Arts program.
“The exhibition seeks to capture the emotional residue that seeped out from our past year together through works that are emotive, absurd, humorous, heartbreaking and hopeful,” said Von Fange. “The year 2020 produced numerous challenges that we faced individually and collectively, fueled by the tension of rising social unrest in the United States and the global COVID-19 pandemic.”
Following the public event, the exhibition will be on view to the public officially starting June 5 and will run through August 6. Visitors will not need advanced registration from Fridays to Sundays between the hours of 12 and 6 p.m. Visitors will be asked to comply with UCCS COVID-19 requirements.
The exhibition will feature the following artists, who have prepared works of art in a wide range of media, including performance, mixed-media installation, painting and drawing, and fiber arts:
- Katy Batsel (Denver)
- Koko Bayer (Denver)
- Jonah Brock (Colorado Springs)
- Kailani Dobson (Colorado Springs)
- Trey Duvall (Denver)
- Moe Gram (Denver)
- Margaret Kasahara (Colorado Springs)